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Chris Paul is intense, to be sure. When he missed what could have been a game-winning shot Wednesday night against the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center, DeAndre Jordan grabbed the rebound. Thinking the noise he heard was the horn sounding the end of regulation, Jordan just held the ball over his head as Paul screamed at him to shoot. You see, what Jordan heard was the 24-second-shot buzzer, and there were still 0.7 seconds left when he took the rebound. He could have put the ball back up, thus Paul’s frenzied attempt to get Jordan to do so. Eventually, the Clippers lost 98-93 in overtime after blowing a 10-point lead down the stretch in regulation. Check out Paul screaming at Jordan to put the ball back up:

Point guard Chris Paul continues to move up on the all-time assists leaderboard. His 14 assists in Monday’s victory at Minnesota moved him past Kevin Johnson into 18th-place on the all-time assists leaderboard. Paul had 6,724 heading into action Wednesday against the Portland Trail Blazers.

There were two very big baskets by the Clippers down the stretch in their 110-105 victory Monday night at Minnesota. Spencer Hawes buried a 3-pointer for a 105-101 lead with 1:31 to play. Then, with 38 seconds left, Chris Paul made a 19-footer over the 6-foot-11 Kevin Garnett for a 108-103 lead, all but sealing the Timberwolves’ fate.

Since Paul is only 6-foot, his shot over Garnett was not easy to make.

“I tried to get the iso (isolated play),” Paul said. “They took away my step-back and I put up a tough one and it went down.”

– The importance of this victory should not be minimized. The Clippers (38-21) were coming off consecutive losses for the first time since losing Blake Griffin to an elbow injury. Four days after not playing well down the stretch and losing by three points at home to Memphis, the Clippers dominated the Grizzlies on their home court. Without Griffin. They did it with terrific defense, too, holding Memphis to just 37.9 percent shooting.

– Speaking of Griffin, he has now missed the past eight games because of the staph infection that was surgically removed from his right elbow. Four of those victories were against Dallas (5th, Western Conference), Houston (3rd, West), San Antonio (7th, West) and now Memphis (2nd, West). How many people would have thought the Clippers would have that many quality victories without Griffin? Not many.

– Safe to say, Chris Paul wasn’t tripping off his turnover at the end of Monday’s loss to Memphis that was responsible for the Clippers not getting off a shot that could have won the game. All Paul did in this one was score 19 points with 13 assists, four rebounds, two steals and just one turnover in 40 minutes.

– Man, DeAndre Jordan is not messing around out there, is he? He scored 15 points. But that’s just the start of it. He also grabbed a whopping 22 rebounds with three assists, two steals and three blocks. Other than that, he didn’t do a thing. Jordan is averaging 17.1 points and 18.5 rebounds in the eight games Griffin has missed. He’s averaging 16.0 points and 17.2 rebounds in 11 games in February. In four games, he had at least 20 rebounds with a high of 27 in a Feb. 9 win at Dallas. He entered play Friday averaging 11.2 points and 14.0 rebounds.

– The shooting guard tandem of J.J. Redick and sixth-man Jamal Crawford continues to be one of the best around. Redick scored 18 points on 6 of 12 shooting – 2 of 5 from 3-point range – and Crawford scored 19 points on 8 of 16 shooting, also 2 of 5 from beyond the arc. Crawford has averaged 21.2 points in the eight games missed by Griffin, Redick has averaged 15.0. Teams either have to worry about being out-dazzlied by Crawford or out-worked by runaround Redick.

While Russell Westbrook took home the MVP and nearly set a scoring record for the NBA All-Star Game with 41 points on 28 shots, the Clippers’ Chris Paul led the game with 15 assists. Paul is the all-time leader in assists per All-Star game (12.5). Magic Johnson has the top two single game assist totals, with 22 in 1984 and 19 in 1988.
In case you want to see what 163-158 looks like on paper, here’s the 2015 All-Star Game box score.

Not all is right with the Clippers at the All-Star break. Chris Paul talked with reporters about the team’s defensive issues and its place. He also talked about his career, his appreciation of the game and the joy of taking his son to New York with him. Read Vincent Bonsignore’s column.

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